Sorceress Heart
by TConnorDemonic
Summary: After the train headed for Vale smashes into the wall, the girls find themselves in a new world entirely. One riddled with more mystery than they had anticipated. Come along for a departure from the normal FFVIII Storyline, see the wild twists they take with the inclusion of Team RWBY as well as how different the world of FFVIII becomes.
1. Prologue

_[Prologue]_

 _I have waited for this day to come. And also feared this day would come. Is today a joyous day? Or an odious day? Will the chains that bind be shattered finally? Or will the cycle continue for the rest of eternity? I can only put faith in my power to defy fate itself..._

Silence, and white. The faint sound of buzzing ringing in the ears of those involved. Scorched Earth surrounding the area where four girls ranging in the ages from fifteen to seventeen lay, unconscious. Their weapons next to them. The most discernible trait of these four being the distinct difference in their coloured clothing. Red, Black, Brown, and White. They were easy to tell apart, if not because of the colour of their clothes, then due to their hair styles. One somewhat short length that was black, another white as ice and held in a bun that lengthened out to more, Another black but longer-length, complete with a bow, and another with full golden locks that seemed to reach to the middle of her back.

The four seemed unharmed, unlike their surroundings. It did beckon why they were not responsive... it did not matter much longer however.

A group of four humans, dressed in an elaborate fashion showed up soon. Dressed uniformly with an insignia near their breast pocket that read.

 _ **SeeD**_

Dropped in from seemingly nowhere. One of them reaches to a wire near their shoulder, clicking a button, pointing their head to what seemed to be a small microphone.

"Not what we're expecting, no sign of the witch. We have four girls though, status unconfirmed..." The SeeD takes a moment to motion towards the female in the group, making signs to go check on their vitals. She does so cautiously, unsure if this could be an elaborate ploy by a Sorceress to trap them. Fortunately, it goes off without a hitch.

"Their vitals are good, they're out like a light..." She says as she surveys the damage caused.

"We have some evidence of fire magic being used, there's a few downed T-Rexaur... these girls must have done a team-based Limit Break and knocked themselves out. We need to get them back to Garden. Requesting med-bay pick up, Alcauld Plains, sending Hyper Data signal..." The SeeD speaking said as he brought out a device that looked similar to a scroll out, putting it on the ground before tapping it a few times. A hologram image of wires showing, turning green slowly. As it finishes filling entirely it flashes white three times before disappearing. Picking it up, on the back of it reading.

 _ **Omni-Meter**_

Soon, a large osprey arrives, landing roughly thirty meters away.

"Load them up on there, I got their weapons." The woman says as she begins grabbing the weapons one by one, loading them up after the crew gets the girls on there. Some emergency crew on-board immediately get to work, applying gas masks and hooking them up to a monitor to keep track of their condition to see if it gets any worse. Taking some blood samples and running it through a filter to see if there was any ill-status inflicted upon them.

 **=Meanwhile, In Balamb Garden=**

Sitting on a chair overlooking the surrounding area, including where the mysterious boom had went off not too long ago. Looking through a one-way glass panel atop the Garden, which stands tall enough to half-mast the nearby mountains, and overall large enough to crush a city if dropped on it. Looking like a giant blue crystal, it was a state of the art academy built to train kids and teenagers to become powerful mercenaries to fend off threats to the world, be it through countries with a manifest destiny or witches with the power to enthrall cities with a raise of their arm. Balamb Garden, founded twelve years ago to this day by Headmaster Cid... who nods his head as he stands up, seeing the osprey returning to the Garden.

He was a husky man, and if no one knew any better, looked like Robin Williams. He wore a pair of glasses that contrasted to his somewhat dark complexion despite being what we would call Caucasian. He wears a white long-sleeve, with a red vest above it. Black pants and black boots. He looks to his assistant, Commander Xu of SeeD proper.

"I'll be heading to Dr. Kadowaki's, re-schedule our meeting with Master NORG to tomorrow. Those girls likely know more about what happened than we do and I want to make sure we welcome them with open arms." He says as the wall in front of him revolves to become an open hallway, leading directly to an elevator, which comes up to him immediately upon request.

Stepping in, he sighs, somewhat apprehensive about something...

 _Four girls taking down four T-Rexaurs while everyone is currently in attendance... something doesn't feel right about this. Even our best students currently have trouble dealing with one without the help of status junctions... no one else aside from Balamb Garden allows junctions... it's not adding up..._

As the elevator door closes and the headmaster makes his way to the med-bay, Xu turns around and presses a button disguised as a barely visible bump on the wall. The hallway turns back to its wall form and the voice com to Master NORG's at the bottom of the Garden goes on.

"NORG, Headmaster Cid has rescheduled our appointment with you for tomorrow precisely at this time. Thank you."


	2. Chapter 1

"Ms. Kadowaki."

"Cid."

"Anything abnormal in their condition?"

"Nothing beyond some blunt force trauma to the head..."

"Any injuries on them? Was the damage drastic?"

"Scans showed nothing beyond at most a concussion, even then I can't find anything pointing to that anyway, they'll be fine. They're wrapped up with some cold compress. They'll need a day or two to heal their bruises."

"Thank you Ms. Kadowaki." Cid said as he took a look over at the room over where the girls were resting, he then took a look over by the lockers and took a look at their weapons.

 _The one in red uses a... rectangular box? The one in brown uses those gauntlets with... a gun barrel on them, The one in black uses... that odd looking Gunblade with the gun portion being underneath everything, and the one in white uses..._

Cid took a closer look at the weapon, it looked like it functioned reminiscent to a Gunblade... but this was less obvious of a gun. It had the cylinder of a revolver, as well as the frame surrounding the cylinder. Each bore in the cylinder had a different colour... was her weapon a sort of roulette model? The colours had to mean something. Were they different junction elements she could switch to? If so, a unique weapon it was. If not only because this Gunblade was based off of a rapier. Rather than a longblade/broadsword like the resident Gunblade wielders. Cid quickly brought out his omni-meter, tapping it a few times and swiping once. Soon after taking pictures of each girl's weapon.

 _Remarkable... Seems like advanced tech, could these girls be from Esthar?_

Cid looked over to the girls and looked at their clothing again, shaking his head.

 _Esthar has a unique style of dress for all of their citizens, they don't fit that description... then where do they come from?_

Cid pondered this as he walked back to the desk of the infirmary, heading to the chair opposite of Kadowaki's to do some research based on the girl's appearance, as well as ask some of his contacts in the different parts of the world if they had seen anything quite like the weapons he had taken pictures of. Uploading the picture data and sending it through the channels of hyper data wires that run underground and connect everyone to everybody across the world. Their only means ever since live broadcasting had been impossible since eighteen years prior due to an unknown phenomenon.

Not too long after Cid's venture into weapon curiosity, a young man in an open black leather jacket, a white v-neck undershirt. Chains on his black pants as well as black boots. Holding his head that was wrapped up over one of his eyes, a visible bloodstain on the wrap that was now getting dry. He looks to his right and sees four different girls also in what looked to be bandages.

Groaning, he returned back to laying on his back, thinking one thing before he drifted back off to sleep.

 _f***ing idiot, Seifer..._

The bells for the classes ring as they start their session, one in specific ran by none other than the prodigy SeeD candidate Quistis Trepe, or rather, Instructor Trepe as she was known as for now. Graduated from Garden by 15 and gained her instructor license by 17. She was known for her ability to copy the magic abilities of monsters previously thought exclusive to them. For this she was given the name "Blue Mage" by the faculty overlooking the training department. She even has gained her own following amongst the students, the Trepe fan club, twenty-seven members and counting. Although they claim their interest is exclusively for her combat prowess, their posts on the school's message board suggest otherwise.

Standing at 5"8', she wears her SeeD uniform. Consisting of a black blouse with dark blue shoulders that is reminiscent of the design of the sailor-style collar. Attached to the collar are two gold-trimmed "wings" that hang over the chest; a maroon tie is worn with a metal clasp adorned with the SeeD logo. Complete with a straight skirt cutting off just above the knees. Finishing it with Black knee high boots. She wears makeup to reinforce her already youthful and attractive look, specifically the very thin eye-liner that shows off her ocean blue eyes. She wears her blond hair tied up, held with a silver comb accessory, and has two long fringes framing her face.

The classroom, a lecture hall adorned with Balamb's signature colours, blue, chrome, and gold. Had enough space surrounding the podium before the closed off seats that it was possible to hold sparring matches in the space for the Instructor to observe their students and offer sound advice.

"Class, today is something of a relaxed day. Another instructor will be coming in to fill in for me, I'm needed to help a student recover after an ordeal that happened in the Training Center..." Quistis says as she shoots daggers over to Seifer, the resident prick and just all around a*****. Everyone else looks at him, he merely shrugs as a smirk finds its way on his face. The truth was, the students feared him, he was the champion the past three years of the Garden Festival. An event where Garden students from Trabia, Galbadia, and Balamb Gardens meet to square off against one another and see just who has the best students when it comes to combat. Balamb has had the honour ever since Seifer won his first eligible year. Some students think his skills are enough to take on most of the school at the same time, although he has not personally stated anything on the matter, the faculty have on several occasions backed it up... alongside their disgruntlement with his attitude. He was unique from the other kids, he did not use the junction technique, he came from the Almasy line, a family known for its inheritance of the manipulation of chi. Ever since his first day he was a cut above the rest, defeating an instructor in one on one battle last year, although the match took near twenty minutes to conclude.

"As a result, you all will be in the tech wing for today on the second floor until my return. This will not interfere with tomorrow's schedule which will have you in the tech wing again. Thank you, if you need help with any of the material we went over yesterday make sure to e-mail me with your assigned computer." Quistis nodded as she walked out of the room, another instructor heading in soon afterwards.

"Whatever..." Seifer says as he gets up, two of his friends doing so as well.

"We're getting out of this dump, don't need to worry about anything till the festival and then the field exam... I want to try some of that Balamb Fish..." He says as he too walks out, heading the opposite way of Quistis.

"Ugh... my head..." The one known as Ruby says as she slowly gets up to sitting position. Immediately finding it odd that her head was wrapped in bandages. Getting up she looks around. Immediately finding the rest of her team lying down on beds. A little more and she found a nurse of some sort sitting at a desk with a computer as well as a heavy set looking man.

"Hey, Y-yang?" Ruby says as she begins to shake her sister's shoulder. Finding an immediate response as she opens her eyes too, Ruby does this to the other two members of her group. Wakening them as well.

"OOBLECK! VALE!" Ruby suddenly remembers as she looks around, not seeing the Huntsman they were supposed to be shadowing.

"Hold up, let's remember what was happening..." Yang says as she rubs her eyes.

"The train was heading to break out into the city and... then I went out." Weiss says as she gets off the bed, Blake doing so as well.

"I remember the train was about to hit the wall and then everything went blank." Blake says as she too takes a gander around.

"Cid, looks like the girls are awake." Ms. Kadowaki says as she takes a look over at them.

"Good, good. I'd much rather talk to them sooner rather than later." Cid says as he gets up from the chair, logging out from the computer and heading towards the girls, who immediately look at him.

"Good morning strangers." Headmaster Cid says as he nods towards them, holding his hands behind his back as he speaks to them.

"I'm unsure if you're aware that you four were involved at a scene that was nearby our Garden, Balamb Garden. We responded immediately and found you four unconscious alongside four dead T-Rexaur. That is most unusual..."

Immediately the girls give Cid an incredulous look.

 _What's a T-Rexaur...?_

They all thought to themselves in unison.

"Balamb... Balamb Garden? Huh? What about Vale? Did they fix everything?" Ruby asks immediately, the girls looking at Cid.

"Vale? I haven't heard of a Vale. Do you four... know where you are currently?"

"Yeah we're on Remnant... in Vale."

"Remnant?"

"You know, the planet."

Cid gives them a look of confusion, closing an eye as he scratches his chin.

"We call the planet Gaea. Go ahead and explain what you guys were doing before the accident."

"Well, we were on a train..." Ruby starts off first, Yang, Blake, and Weiss jumping in and adding information from their account of things leading up to the train crashing. Cid immediately sparks an idea of what may have happened in his head of what may have happened.

"I see, well, my intention is not to panic you four, but there simply exists no Vale, no Remnant. I think I have an idea of what may have happened with you, it's only a hypothesis, but based on what you've said it's starting to lend more credence to it. I think what may have happened is you've all been displaced either temporally or dimensionally. This would make sense given the design of your weapons that I've seen, especially the white Rapier."

"You have our weapons?"

"Yes, they're in a locker near the nurse there, we haven't tampered with them so don't worry about that. Anyway, we have... an issue as of late. Witches or Sorceresses have been increasing in activity as of late, at ridiculous numbers. Their abilities are largely unknown, but from what we've observed it isn't impossible that they could've ripped you four from your home and placed you here..." Cid looked at the girls' face, seeing them giving him a blank expression, looking like they were lost.

"It sounds far-fetched, I know, and I apologize if I'm not cohesive. I've made contact with the other Gardens as well as some contacts in the other continents. I'll get back to you on that if anything comes up, especially with this information you've given me should be enough to see if you're in the right place or even time." Cid said as he scratches the back of his head.

"I'm assuming as of right now you all don't have anywhere to stay?"

"Well... if we're lost like this... no." Weiss says quickly in response.

"In that case, I can offer you temporary dorms until we get this mess dealt with. We have the room so don't worry, we're an academy that trains young adults and kids such as yourself to become protectors of the world after all. We're well funded." He says with a smile. He walks off towards Doctor Kadowaki, looking back at the girls.

"Go ahead and grab your weapons and wait outside for me." He says in his calm and inviting voice. The girls shrug and listen, heading to the locker and grabbing their weapons, soon after heading out the door.

Waiting for a few seconds for them to get far enough, Doctor Kadowaki spoke to Cid, revealing her untrusting nature of what they said.

"Do you really trust that far-fetched story they gave, enough to offer speculation on it?"

"I've seen the eyes of children that lie Kadowaki, I saw nothing to tell me that they were lying. It seemed to me that they believed it as one hundred percent truth, who am I to tell them that they're lying? Besides, it wouldn't hurt to train our future SeeDs to train for temporal or dimension dislocation." Cid said as he brought a cup of coffee to his lips, drinking it before putting it back down.

"If you'll excuse me, I have a tour to give." He says as he heads off to meet with Team RWBY. Kadowaki shakes her head and rolls her eyes.

"That man's trust will be his downfall..."

"So... what is Balamb Garden?" Blake asks Headmaster Cid as they begin to walk down the open hallway, the one with the open view of the courtyards and the bell of Balamb Garden that chimed.

"Think of it as the academies you told me about. We train kids to help protect the world from monsters, although we are different in that that's not all that we do. We're ultimately a mercenary for hire force, we've had a sudden spike in payments as of late, what with a country by the name of Galbadia beginning to take land from surrounding neighbors. We've had recurring assignments across the world to help protect small countries from its hand. But, I think what I'll do is have an instructor give you all a crash course on the state of the world currently tomorrow in case of a worst case scenario, which for you would mean being stuck here... permanently" Cid spoke with some uncertainty on that last part, he didn't want that to happen them truth be told. Separation anxiety was a big enough problem for SeeD operatives, he can only imagine what it would be like to have _virtually zero_ chance of getting home.

Coming up upon the nearby CCTV, Headmaster Cid waves them over to take a look.

"Right outside of here you will be at this spot specifically."

Cid said as he pointed to the path closest to the left edge of the screen.

"From there you would go left until you reach behind the elevator. Also, the red path is the cafeteria." Cid said as he switched the view to the camera behind the elevator.

"That center path, the one outlined with grey leads to the dormitories. I'll have an instructor show you where it is..." Cid says as he sees Quistis in the distance.

"Finally, to the right of that is where you will find the Training Center and Library."

"Any questions?"

"Uhm..." Ruby stammers out.

"Good. Quistis!" Cid says as he slightly raises his voice to get her attention. Quistis raising her eyebrows as she looks at the girls with their weapons.

"Would you please mind guiding these four to the guest dormitories? As well as setting them up with an account at the cafeteria?" Cid says as he forgets one thing.

"What are your names? I forgot to ask you."

"I'm Ruby Rose."

"I'm Weiss Schnee."

"I'm Blake Belladonna."

"I'm Yang Xiao Long"

"Well, it was very nice meeting you four. I'll make sure to waive any fees regarding food expenses should you head towards there." Cid says as he leaves back towards the elevator, to return to his third floor spot.

"I'm Instructor Trepe, also known as Quistis Trepe, I train the students here to become members of SeeD. I will be showing you your residence as well as helping you set up your account here at Balamb Garden. Do you have any questions?"

"Not a question, but that man told us he would waive our food expenses."

"His name is Cid, for reference, also thank you, that makes this process much easier. Follow me."

They walk for the better part of an hour getting accustomed to the academy.

"This place is beautiful..." Ruby says through awe-struck eyes at the architecture in place.

"It really is." Yang adds.

"We would hope so, everything from the fountains to the way the hallways are built are meant to give off a good feeling. Studies have shown as of late that small things such as colours on a wall can effect the mood of a person. Cid spent a lot of capital on this place, it would be wasted if one thing was faulty or ruined the mood of a student."

Once their tour was done, Quistis gave them their keys to their dormitory as they stood in front of it.

"Before you ask, our staff will wash your clothes for you, there are a change of clothes of varying sizes in there that you can use as pajamas. Good luck, and welcome to Balamb Garden." She said with a smile before walking off to go check on the boy in the infirmary and his condition.


	3. Chapter 2

It was currently five in the morning, almost a day had passed since Team RWBY had miraculously ended up where they were at. The first night was rough, silent worrying between them all. They had only gotten four hours of sleep, and it were at the same hour they did wake up. There was an awkward silence for the next ten minutes, everyone seemed to know they were up, but they didn't bother speaking... atleast, that was until Weiss broke the silence.

"In the case that we don't... make it back, what are we supposed to do?" Weiss asks with a tremble in her voice.

"Try to live our lives here I guess. There's not much else to it. Really not a two way-street for it." Blake says bluntly, although she too had a hint of uncertainty to it all.

With Blake saying her piece, everyone went quiet again. So quiet that the distant ring of Balamb's bell could be heard. A reminder that although the knowledge of Vale's safety was unsure, this world seemed rather safe. If it were anything like Remnant, it had yet to be seen.

"Do-do you guys think Vale is alright?"

"There would definitely be a lot of huntsmen and huntresses sent there, all of those Grimm can't handle that many can they? We were doing pretty well against them before." Yang replies with immediately, mostly sure of the strength of the huntsmen and huntresses they knew.

"I don't know..." Blake says in her voice that sounded like it had been hurt emotionally.

"What do you mean?" Ruby replies hastily.

"There was a lot of them, and the impact probably lead them all into the streets, enough time and they'd likely spill out across the entire town. Maybe Goodwitch fixed up the hole after they dealt with the situation but we can't be sure. We have no way of knowing." Blake's skeptical way of looking at the situation sent chills down everyone's spine. In specific, Ruby, as through technicality she had contributed to the chain of events that lead to the train getting set off into escape in the first place.

"What about Zwei?"

"Oobleck cares too much for him, only way Zwei would get killed is if Oobleck died. I doubt Oobleck died..." Yang responded with her own bluntness, she wasn't so much scared of the situation as she was angry. Not too long before the train crashed she had seen that woman... she had felt a pull to her, that woman had saved her for whatever reason, now it was unlikely she would ever find out. It was far-fetched but... what if it was her Mom she had been searching for? Her hair... it looked similar to her own. The only difference being the colour...

*DUM* *DUM*

There were two loud poundings on their door, the force of which was inhuman in its strength. It rumbled the floor and left some vibration that they could feel.

"H-hello?" Ruby asked.

"It's Instructor Trepe, your course on the world in its current state has been scheduled at 0550 hours, I'm here to escort you to the class as well as be your instructor for the day." Quistis said as Ruby opened the door. Quistis was looking at her omni-meter, checking the time.

"That would give us thirty-five minutes to get to the lecture hall. Get dressed if you need to." Their response was immediate, they were already in the Balamb Student attire... although Yang in specific had one complaint to voice.

"Are there any larger sizes for the students here?" Yang asked while looking at her chest, which looked constricted to put it bluntly. Quistis responding with a chuckle as she went ahead and adjusted the uniform to fit more comfortably.

"We do apologize, we haven't had any students that are quite as... top-heavy as you are." Quistis said between a muffled laugh, finishing the fastening on the back. Yang responded with a sigh.

"Is that better?"

"Very much."

"Alright then, let's get going."

Walking throughout the vast expanse that was Balamb Garden, they passed a multitude of shower rooms and rest rooms.

"You won't have to worry too much about clogged up bathrooms and the like, we have quite the clean reputation." Quistis added as she saw the same boy from the infirmary she visited earlier walking about, she rolled her eyes, sighing as they walked up near him.

"Squall, what are you doing?"

Now that they were up close, they could see why he was bandaged up yesterday in the way he was. He had a rather fresh looking scar that looked to be done from a blade, his gloves looked to be burnt black, as if there was some kind of fire he had been involved in.

"What does it matter?"

"You're supposed to be in the infirmary recovering, you're lucky you're alive."

"...Whate-"

"Whatever?" Quistis finished it for him, letting out a small laugh. Squall responded by looking to his side, clearly annoyed by her finishing his sentence for him.

"Well, Whatever, would you mind coming along and helping these four out with me? You still need your leadership credit before you're eligible for the Fire Cavern, as well as the Field Test. If you do this we can get that done and you can relax until then."

"Fine..." Squall responded, as Quistis and the four began to walk, Squall following closely behind.

"So... what happened to you?" Ruby asked the scarred SeeD candidate who stood roughly six inches taller than her.

"..."

"I'm sorry if I wasn't speaking loud enough."

"Don't worry about him, he's generally a reserved and introverted person. He usually doesn't speak to anyone unless it's required of him" Quistis butted in, assuring Ruby she wasn't being too quiet.

"Isn't that right Squall?"

"...Sorry for ignoring you." Squall said with a palpable impertinence.

"I was injured in what was supposed to be a "friendly" sparring match, my partner decided to fight dirty. We were supposed to be using just our Gunblades but he ended up blasting me with chi fire, it knocked me on my a*** and then he struck me while I was still getting up. That's where this scar came from."

"He sounds like a jerk." Ruby responded

"That's putting it nicer than I would, I've had to deal with him ever since we were enrolled here." Squall said as he shrugged his shoulders.

"Seifer certainly has attitude problems, likely due to a difficult upbringing." Quistis added.

"Does he treat everyone like that?"

"He usually pays no respect to anybody except those that can compete with him physically. Squall here is the only student that can, outside of instructors like myself."

"Why hasn't he been expelled?"

"This is a first offense for him, he usually doesn't try to seriously injure his training partners. I would take it as a compliment personally Squall, he fought dirty in order to get the upper hand... maybe you can defeat him at this year's festival..."

"...Wh-"

"Whatever?" Squall this time stopped where he was and held a hand to his hip, shaking his head slowly. Quistis and the entirety of Team RWBY couldn't help but let out genuine laughter.

Entering one of the many lecture halls on the second floor after some time walking and using the elevator, Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang find themselves unsure of where exactly to sit. Quistis soon instructing them.

"Take a seat anywhere in the front center row." Almost immediately the four zipped into proper sitting position, next to one another. Quistis raising an eyebrow at the speed they had shown off, clearing her throat before beginning.

"Welcome to today's lecture on the essential information you'll need in order to not be under a rock. My student Squall here will be offering examples or clarification depending on the material. With that said, I must start off with a question for you. As a citizen of anywhere, what is essential to get by?"

"Money?" Weiss answered.

"Correct, I do not know the currency you may have used where you're from, but here we use a currency named gil. Short for gold coins. Squall?" Quistis said as she looked to him, Squall digging into a pocket and pulling out a single gil coin.

"These coins are made of 18 karat gold, they're quite valuable but they're also a pain to carry in large amounts. That is why we usually store them in banks and use cards to represent our amount. Although students here use their omni-meter for that as do the faculty." As Quistis finished her sentence, Squall puts away the gold coin. Immediately Weiss had a question.

"Are there any other currencies that are used?"

"Outside of tribes that use material trades, no. Gaea has a near universal economy that allows for countries to strive ahead of others given they play their cards right." Squall responded.

"Correct, Squall." Quistis said as she made a slight change to the subject.

"Speaking of tribes, one in specific that have a very important role in this Garden itself is the Shumi Tribe. Not much is known of them unfortunately. After the Sorceress War twenty years ago they secluded themselves from most of society, heading to the frozen tundra of the Trabia continent, taking many of their works of culture along with them. What is known is that they have two physical forms. You've already seen them actually, the staff that were in front of most of the pathways are actually Shumi Tribesmen. They're known for being incredibly artistic and dedicated to their work." This struck a chord somewhat with Blake, who butted in.

"Was the reason they left because they felt persecuted by humans? Were they not treated equally?"

"Blake..."

"No, no, it's a valid question. To answer it, in the region of Galbadia they were using Tribesmen slave labor in order to cut production costs for the Galbadian military's excessive spending. The violation of their civil rights was likely a contributing factor to the rest of the Shumi deciding to leave most of humanity. That, and many of their settlements being razed to the ground by both Galbadian and Estharian forces. To answer what I think may be another one of your questions, we here at Balamb Garden enforce a strict no tolerance mindset towards racism of any sort. Be they Human, Shumi, Alien, or in your case, Faunus." Immediately Blake and the rest of her teammates were struck with confusion at just how Quistis knew she was a Faunus.

"H-how did you know?"

"We here at Balamb Garden specialize in the use of magic, one specific spell that we use is called Scan. It tells us of shown physical capabilities as well as a brief rundown on what or whom something or someone is. Why the scan spell picked up on your specific race I don't know, how it knew is a mystery. As long as our world's magic has witnessed it, the scan spell will know." Quistis said as Squall nodded.

"This lends more credence to the theory that you four were brought here by a Sorceress or a Witch."

"Then if one was capable of taking us out of there..." Weiss said, before being cut off by Quistis.

"Then they should know how to put you back. But, we're getting off topic. The chances of us finding this specific Sorceress or Witch is incredibly unlikely, due to the association of them with fear. Most decide to keep their latent abilities secret, we've had a few found here at Garden, at which point they are given two options. They can be open about their status and continue to train as a SeeD, or we must turn them over to Esthar in order to prevent public panic. I am one of the open witches. If that gives you any sort of grounds to sympathize Blake." Quistis says as she nods towards Blake.

"Speaking of Sorceresses and Witches, the origin of their power is not known with a hundred percent certainty. All religions however point to a monotheistic or polytheistic head god or great magician named Hyne. Hyne, according to most religious texts, created the universe, sealed the monsters on the moon, and gave half of its body to humanity. This body would come to be known as magic. So far, the only people that inherit this power that we know of are females. Sorceresses and Witches are immortal until they pass on their power. Based on past observations, they still share the same life span as normal humans and if at the age or above it, will die upon passing their powers. However, the reason why we here at Balamb Garden look out for Sorceresses and Witches is because the power of pure magic will corrupt the bodies and minds of those that possess it if not trained properly and given the necessary exposure to society and thus the full spectrum of emotions such as love and friendship. Mutations we've observed range anywhere from elongated fingertips, to loss of fatty tissues in the breasts, to all around masculinarization. This is not taking into account the multiple accounts of possessors developing schizophrenia. As one can imagine, someone with that amount of power whilst being in a damaged mental capacity could do catastrophic damage, as the Sorceress War proved. Many children were orphaned, including myself and Squall here. In fact, roughly forty-five percent of students in attendance here at Balamb Garden, and thirty-five percent in all of the Gardens are orphans. All of that damage, was the work of one sorceress." Quistis spoke with a matter of fact tone. She could not remember much of her parents, she couldn't remember much of her childhood at all. Neither could Squall remember his own. As a result, they both spoke without hesitance on the matter whenever asked.

"What happens to Sorceresses and Witches that are not students, that get caught?" Yang asks.

"Well, we usually only go after those with reports of magic violence being used, once we track them down we usually find a way to convince them to come with us or we sedate them. From there, we usually give them therapy and try to reintroduce them to society in a fashion that allows them to experience love and friendship and the like. We've made considerable progress, with effects of the corruption subsiding, or even completely disappearing. Once they're rehabilitated we ask them to act as an active member of our council regarding Sorceress and Witch activities. Of course, we also do tell them that if they do refuse that we must send them to Esthar."

"What do they do to them in Esthar?"

"We don't know unfortunately, Esthar went quiet after the Sorceress War. A coup against their Sorceress leader took place, they managed to overthrow her, her name being Sorceress Adel, and ended the war shortly after. Ever since then we have no feasible way of making contact with them other than sending them to the location we knew they were last at."

"Why would you send them to Esthar if you don't even know if they're still there?"

"I've brought this up to the council many times, but they assure me that they do gain entry into Esthar. I'm personally not sure if I buy into it, but they're my superiors."

Just then, Headmaster Cid walked into the room. He sighed as he looked to the girls.

"Unfortunately, we were not able to identify any location on this planet known as Vale or any of the other kingdoms you spoke of. As it stands right now, you're outside of where you're supposed to be..." Headmaster Cid could feel the souring mood in the room.

"But..."

The four girls looked towards him, what was there to be added to this solemn note?

"I am extending my personal support towards you four by offering you the chance to enroll here at Balamb Garden and thus the opportunity to become SeeD members, as well as dedicating resources towards finding the Sorceress or Witch that has displaced you."

The room was quiet for almost a minute before Headmaster Cid spoke again.

"I can give you time to consider the offer, your residence here, student or not, is open to you until you find somewhere to stay. If you do decide to become students, you will be given your own personalized dormitories." He walked out of the room afterwards, Quistis waiting for some time before continuing.

"Let's see... where was I?"


End file.
